Obesity remains a serious health problem and it is no secret that many people want to lose weight. Behavioral economists typically argue that “nudges” help individuals with various decisionmaking flaws to live longer, healthier, and better lives. In an article in the new issue of Regulation, Michael L. Marlow discusses how nudging by government differs from nudging by markets, and explains why market nudging is the more promising avenue for helping citizens to lose weight.

Two long wars, chronic deficits, the financial crisis, the costly drug war, the growth of executive power under Presidents Bush and Obama, and the revelations about NSA abuses, have given rise to a growing libertarian movement in our country – with a greater focus on individual liberty and less government power. David Boaz’s newly released The Libertarian Mind is a comprehensive guide to the history, philosophy, and growth of the libertarian movement, with incisive analyses of today’s most pressing issues and policies.

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Tag: labor laws

Economic freedom in India has improved notably since the beginning of the country’s market reforms in the early 1990s, stimulating high growth from a very low income base. Though India’s level of economic freedom is still low—it ranked 111 out of 144 countries in the latestEconomic Freedom of the World index—assigning one overall rating to this vast country can be a bit misleading. The map below shows that, rated on a state by state basis, the levels of economic freedom in India in fact vary greatly. The state of Gujarat, for example, has the freest economy in the country and ranks far above West Bengal, one of the least free states.

This annual report shows a positive relationship between economic freedom and growth. It is a reminder to policymakers at the state level that they need not wait for national leaders to restart the reform agenda; much can be done at the sub-national level to improve freedom. My colleague Swami Aiyar, one of the co-authors of the report, suggests some reforms in his chapter(.pdf) describing Punjab’s decline.

The study discusses reforms in two other areas that would have a significant impact on Indian growth. In his chapter (.pdf), Ashok Gulati, the head of the Indian government’s Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, describes the extent to which Indian agriculture is so incredibly screwed up in every step of production and sales, and he suggests sweeping liberalization. Economist Bibek Debroy describes India’s extremely rigid labor laws (.pdf), which help explain India’s large informal economy and why the country has failed to create labor intensive export industries as have developed in other Asian countries.